In our increasingly globalized world of shared cultures, we have seen the spread of addictive behaviors such as smoking and various forms of gambling. As these behaviors and subsequent habits continue to spread across borders, it is paramount for policy makers to consider the economics of habit,...

A model of rational addiction (RA) with optimal inventories is developed and empirically tested using data on purchases in Japan. If a consumer has information regarding a future price increase, then she may hoard addictive goods; in this case, the optimal inventory period increases with the...